"I believe all children, regardless of where they live, have the right to a good education,” he said. “In deciding to raise the bar and by stating that 'good' is the only acceptable provision, I was convinced that schools would rise to the challenge. And that is what I believe is happening."

Schools are currently rated on a four-point scale – outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate.

Some 2,102 state schools in England were inspected between the start of October and end of December under Ofsted’s new regime.

Of those, almost a third required improvement and more than one-in-20 were given Ofsted’s worst rating.

But the watchdog insisted that standards were improving. Some 47 per cent of schools improved on their last inspection, while 41 per cent remained the same and 12 per cent declined.

The rate of improvement was “much higher” than in the previous year when 32 per cent of schools improved between inspections, it was claimed.

Sir Michael said: "I'm clear that scrapping the satisfactory judgment and replacing it with 'requires improvement' is injecting a sense of urgency in both schools and local authorities.

“Heads and governing boards now have a much greater focus on tackling the central issues of school improvement.”

But Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: “Many schools will have been working under considerable pressure and stress to improve their inspection rating and this may have been at the expense of working in a way that really is in the interest of all children.

“Michael Wilshaw takes a particular delight in using his position to inject fear into the school community.”